New Contracts

ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Reading that Manning has turned down his latest offer but Martin reckons we cannot afford to increase it. Shame if we lose him but that's our owners for you!! :( Latibeaudiere is another in the pipeline and he's supposed to be "considering his options". Not fussed about losing him tbh but I wouldn't like to see Manning leave now that he's started to find some form.

Obafemi is another concern. Martin hints that he's unsettled because he missed out on a move to Burnley and, as a consequence, has not been putting in the required effort. For me, if he doesn't want to be here then get rid. I'd sooner see Liam Cullen get more game time anyway.
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Martin's use of Manning is putting delusions of grandeur into his head. Manning is playing many roles and frankly not establishing him as a master of any. Manning joined at the start of 20/21 for a fee around £250k. Money well spent. Transfer Market (Ryan Manning - Market value over time) values him at £2.4m. If he doesn't want to resign then move him in January for whatever we can get - he is 26 - he's as good as he's going to get and we can do better. We have options on the left side: one of which is to play Naughton as LB and play Flex in front of him as a winger (Sinclair style) - that would work very nicely.

Lati is in a similar situation to Manning, he is played all over the place but not dominating in any role where he has opportunities ... eg RB, RWB. He is not a central defender - Wood and Cabango are the go to players there. Transfer Market (Joel Latibeaudiere - Player profile 22/23) doesn't list what we paid City for him, but I seem to remember hearing a number around £1m. If so, he's never realized that valuation for us. Current market valuation is £700k.

In looking through the rest of the squad, Darling was acquired for £2m. What idiot sanctioned this player at that price. Can't even get a regular start. At that price he should be the go to CB.

Obafemi and Piroe are "special" players. By that I mean, they play their way and if you don't cater to that and build a system around them then it's not going to work. This is especially true of Obafemi. Martin is not going to build a team around anybody. He regards every body as "draughts" on a "chess" board that he can move around and utilize as he sees fit - and the result is as ill-fitting as using draughts in a game of chess.

Unlike these two, Cullen has been schooled in our academy. I think he could be far more functional if given a run of games and work synergistically in a high energy configuration with the likes of Cooper, Cundle and Flex. Maybe we will be lucky and player greed will end up forcing Martin to play in a more rational way.
 
ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
LadyGG's hubby stunned me today with some news of a possible new signing. He said he'd read online that we were going to sign someone who has played for us in the past. I shook my head in disbelief but he assured me that he had read it. Now I reckon that it's probably just a false rumour that does the rounds from time to time but I thought it would be a bit of fun for you to have a guess before I reveal his identity. I'll do that some time tomorrow but meantime maybe you can post your guesses on here. ;)
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Unless you’re counting English as foreign 😜 I can’t think of any others that are still young enough to play that are any good … Sig maybe, he’s out of contract.
 
ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
All worthy guesses but none correct I'm afraid. The player I've been told is Ki, which should please @Yankee_Jack if what I've been told is true. Personally I doubt it and it sounds like a rumour-monger with too much time on his/her hands over Christmas.
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Ki is now 33 and under contract with FC Seoul until 2023 - not sure which month.

where would he play, if he can still play. What pets would Martin sit out for Ki, if he was match fit and ready to go. Remembering his infamous CB role at Wembley instead of Monk 🤣, he could play that CCB role between Cabango and Wood.

I’d prefer Sig at this point. He is out of contract and, so I gather, despite not being charged is still prohibited from leaving the country. He needs the work I would imagine. And since you don’t need a passport to travel between England and Wales 🙄, as some might imagine, the prohibition would not be a problem
 
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ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
I'd like Siggy providing he is innocent of the charges against him. But, if and when that happens, I guess he'll sign for a bigger club than us. However, Ki is the name I was given but I can find no confirmation of the rumour.
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
ivoralljack said:
I'd like Siggy providing he is innocent of the charges against him. But, if and when that happens, I guess he'll sign for a bigger club than us. However, Ki is the name I was given but I can find no confirmation of the rumour.
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Sig is innocent until proven guilty, According to his wiki page (Gylfi Sigurðsson - Wikipedia), as of Oct 2022, he has still not been charged but subject to a travel ban. The arrest on “suspicion” took place in July of 2021 and investigations continued. I don’t understand this type of activity by law enforcement. If you are arrested surely there has to be probable cause, a charge has to follow, an arraignment in front of a magistrate or other trial court, and then a trial swiftly. If I am reading this correctly he’s been in a state of limbo since July 2021. Too hot to touch, but unable to obtain a release from the situation.

He’s 33 now. He’s finished with respect to top clubs, ie prem level. A championship club or club in a lesser foreign league is the best he could hope for.
 
Behindthegoal

Behindthegoal

Key Player
I half remember this. It was a teaser on WOL (aren’t they all?).
The headline implied an ex swan was coming back. It was ksy but something trivial like giving his old boots to a local school team. I can’t find it on WOL now
 
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